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• Argument
• The Story of Beowulf
• I.: And First of the Kindred of Hrothgar.
• II.: Concerning Hrothgar, and How He Built the House Called Hart. Also Grendel Is Told Of.
• III.: How Grendel Fell Upon Hart and Wasted It.
• IV.: Now Comes Beowulf Ecgtheow’s Son to the Land of the Danes, and the Wall-warden Speaketh With Him.
• V.: Here Beowulf Makes Answer to the Land-warden, Who Showeth Him the Way to the King’s Abode.
• VI.: Beowulf and the Geats Come Into Hart.
• VII.: Beowulf Speaketh With Hrothgar, and Telleth How He Will Meet Grendel.
• VIII.: Hrothgar Answereth Beowulf and Biddeth Him Sit to the Feast.
• IX.: Unferth Contendeth In Words With Beowulf.
• X.: Beowulf Makes an End of His Tale of the Swimming. Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s Queen, Greets Him; and Hrothgar Delivers to Him the Warding of the Hall.
• XI.: Now Is Beowulf Left In the Hall Alone With His Men.
• XII.: Grendel Cometh Into Hart: of the Strife Betwixt Him and Beowulf.
• XIII.: Beowulf Hath the Victory: Grendel Is Hurt Deadly and Leaveth Hand and Arm In the Hall.
• XIV.: The Danes Rejoice; They Go to Look On the Slot of Grendel, and Come Back to Hart, and On the Way Make Merry With Racing and the Telling of Tales.
• XV.: King Hrothgar and His Thanes Look On the Arm of Grendel. Converse Betwixt Hrothgar and Beowulf Concerning the Battle.
• XVI.: Hrothgar Giveth Gifts to Beowulf.
• XVII.: They Feast In Hart. the Gleeman Sings of Finn and Hengest.
• XVIII.: The Ending of the Tale of Finn.
• XIX.: More Gifts Are Given to Beowulf. the Brising Collar Told Of.
• XX.: Grendel’s Dam Breaks Into Hart and Bears Off Aeschere.
• XXI.: Hrothgar Laments the Slaying of Aeschere, and Tells of Grendel’s Mother and Her Den.
• XXII.: They Follow Grendel’s Dam to Her Lair.
• XXIII.: Beowulf Reacheth the Mere-bottom In a Day’s While, and Contends With Grendel’s Dam.
• XXIV.: Beowulf Slayeth Grendel’s Dam, Smiteth Off Grendel’s Head, and Cometh Back With His Thanes to Hart.
• XXV.: Converse of Hrothgar With Beowulf.
• XXVI.: More Converse of Hrothgar and Beowulf: the Geats Make Them Ready For Departure.
• XXVII.: Beowulf Bids Hrothgar Farewell: the Geats Fare to Ship.
• XXVIII.: Beowulf Comes Back to His Land. of the Tale of Thrytho.
• XXIX.: Beowulf Tells Hygelac of Hrothgar: Also of Freawaru His Daughter.
• XXX.: Beowulf Forebodes Ill From the Wedding of Freawaru: He Tells of Grendel and His Dam.
• XXXI.: Beowulf Gives Hrothgar’s Gifts to Hygelac, and By Him Is Rewarded. of the Death of Hygelac and of Heardred His Son, and How Beowulf Is King of the Geats: the Worm Is First Told Of.
• XXXII.: How the Worm Came to the Howe, and How He Was Robbed of a Cup; and How He Fell On the Folk.
• XXXIII.: The Worm Burns Beowulf’s House, and Beowulf Gets Ready to Go Against Him. Beowulf’s Early Deeds In Battle With the Hetware Told Of.
• XXXIV.: Beowulf Goes Against the Worm. He Tells of Herebeald and HÆthcyn.
• XXXV.: Beowulf Tells of Past Feuds, and Bids Farewell to His Fellows. He Falls On the Worm, and the Battle of Them Begins.
• XXXVI.: Wiglaf Son of Weohstan Goes to the Help of Beowulf: NÆgling, Beowulf’s Sword, Is Broken On the Worm.
• XXXVII.: They Two Slay the Worm. Beowulf Is Wounded Deadly: He Biddeth Wiglaf Bear Out the Treasure.
• XXXVIII.: Beowulf Beholdeth the Treasure and Passeth Away.
• XXXIX.: Wiglaf Casteth Shame On Those Fleers.
• Xl.: Wiglaf Sendeth Tiding to the Host: the Words of the Messenger.
• Xli.: More Words of the Messenger. How He Fears the Swedes When They Wot of Beowulf Dead.
• Xlii.: They Go to Look On the Field of Deed.
• Xliii.: of the Burial of Beowulf.

XIII.

BEOWULF HATH THE VICTORY: GRENDEL IS HURT DEADLY AND LEAVETH HAND AND ARM IN THE HALL.

• NAUGHT would the earls’ help for anything thenceforth
• That murder-comer yet quick let loose of,
• Nor his life-days forsooth to any of folk
• Told he for useful. Out then drew full many
• Of Beowult’s earls the heir-loom of old days,
• For their lord and their master’s fair life would they ward,
• That mighty of princes, if so might they do it.
• For this did they know not when they the strife dreed,
• Those hardy-minded men of the battle,
• And on every half there thought to be hewing,
• And search out his soul, that the ceaseless scather
• Not any on earth of the choice of all irons,
• Not one of the war-bills, would greet home for ever.
• For he had forsworn him from victory-weapons,
• And each one of edges. But his sundering of soul
• In the days that we tell of, the day of this life,
• Should be weary and woeful, the ghost wending elsewhere
• To the wielding of fiends to wend him afar.
• Then found he out this, he who mickle erst made
• Out of mirth of his mood unto children of men
• And had fram’d many crimes, he the foeman of God,
• That the body of him would not bide to avail him,
• But the hardy of mood, even Hygelac’s kinsman,
• Had him fast by the hand: now was each to the other
• All loathly while living: his body-sore bided
• The monster: was manifest now on his shoulder
• The unceasing wound, sprang the sinews asunder,
• The bone-lockers bursted. To Beowulf now
• Was the battle-fame given; should Grendel thenceforth
• Flee life-sick awayward and under the fen-bents
• Seek his unmerry stead: now wist he more surely
• That ended his life was, and gone over for ever,
• His day-tale told out. But was for all Dane-folk
• After that slaughter-race all their will done.
• Then had he cleans’d for them, he the far-comer,
• Wise and stout-hearted, the high hall of Hrothgar,
• And sav’d it from war. So the night-work he joy’d in
• And his doughty deed done. Yea, but he for the East-Danes
• That lord of the Geat-folk his boast’s end had gotten,
• Withal their woes bygone all had he booted,
• And the sorrow hate-fashion’d that afore they had dreed,
• And the hard need and bitter that erst they must bear,
• The sorrow unlittle. Sithence was clear token
• When the deer of the battle laid down there the hand
• The arm and the shoulder, and all there together
• Of the grip of that Grendel ’neath the great roof upbuilded.